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The first Hungarian Bible translation, the so-called Hussite Bible, is the only surviving Hungarian memory of the Hussite movement, translated from Latin by two Hungarian priests escaping from the Inquisition into Latin Hungarian.

The Hussites wanted to have a native Bible before Luther, writes Origo. Even though it is widely-known in Hungary that the first Bible-translator was Gáspár Károli, he was actually not the first one; other people previously tried to translate it.

At the beginning of the 15th century, the Hussite movement started from the Czech Republic, following the teachings of the University of Prague teacher, János Husz. He demanded that the Church should return to gospel poverty, and should not obey unjust powers.

The Hussite doctrines also had their followers in Hungary in the 15th century. From the beginning, the movement was divided into two parts, a more moderate and a more radical trend.

The Papacy and the German-Roman Emperor Sigismund and the King of Hungary launched several “crusades” against the Hussites, but they successfully resisted for a long time.

Bible translation began around 1436 and was completed before 1441.

This is known from the Munich Code. In the summer of 1439, along with many of the priests of the two priests, he fled to Moldavia from the Inquisition, but they caught them, and the Hussite Bible was confiscated from them.

In the 1430s, the two Hungarian priests took the translation. After marching in March 1439 with the devil of the Franciscan Incident of Jamesiah in March 1439, they finished the work there. Their work has not been preserved in its entirety, so we do not know whether the whole Bible has been translated.

The Vienna Code, as the first copy of the Hussite Bible, was created around 1450 and is now kept in the National Széchényi Library. The book was in the Imperial Court Library from the beginning of the 18th century until 1932, but from 1932 it was kept in the National Széchényi Library.

National Széchenyi Library, V.Mariann, wikicommons

The complete copy was only printed in 1958 and the second copy of 1466 is the Munich Code, which also contains the first Hungarian-language calendar.

A copy of the Hussite Bible, in the Codex of München, dated to 1466. The Hussite Bible was the first ever translation of the Bible in the Hungarian language.wikicommons

The Bavarian State Library keeps the code today.

The four-volume book of 8 archives, 116 papers, contains the 4 Gospels of the New Testament. The first Hungarian-language calendar, which was originally from 1416 to 1435, is found on the quaterino in front of the codex.